Photo of Mamula Island from Klackalica~commonswiki/Wikimedia Commons
The Montenegrin government has ok’d a project to turn Mamula into a luxury resort. Mamula, is uninhabited rocky Adriatic island with a diameter of just 200 meters that’s mainly taken up by a 19th century fortress. Mamula is situated on the bay of Kotor, on the border between Montenegro and Croatia.
During World War II, the island was used as a concentration camp by occupying Italian troops serving under Benito Mussolini. 12,300 people were imprisoned there, of whom 130 were killed or starved to death. Its grim reputation inspired a 1950s movie called “Mamula Camp.”
The decision to develop the site into a resort has drawn international outrage. Olivera Brajovic, head of Montenegro’s national directorate for tourism development, told AFP “We were facing two options: to leave the site to fall into ruin or find investors who would be willing to restore it and make it accessible to visitors.”
